Trump says church leaders should be able to endorse candidates

President says religious leaders should be able to endorse candidates

Published 10:39 pm, Thursday, February 2, 2017

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Thursday.

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Thursday.

Photo: Win McNamee — Bloomberg

Trump says church leaders should be able to endorse candidates

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It is more important to be able to preach about political issues and biblical values than to be able to endorse candidates, say several area pastors, but there are those who believe they should be able to name names.

President Donald Trump, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, declared that religious freedom is “under threat” and vowed to repeal a rarely enforced Internal Revenue Service rule that says clergy who endorse candidates from the pulpit risk losing their tax-exempt status.

“I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution,” Trump said.

“Currently, the law prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one ‘which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office,’” the IRS website www.irs.gov says.

The site also notes: “However, these organizations can engage in advocating for or against issues and, to a limited extent, ballot initiatives or other legislative activities.”

Trump did not detail how he might scrap the IRS rule, which he has previously pledged to do away with. The rule, named after then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, has been in place since 1954, but it is very rare for a church to be penalized. And while some conservative Christians would like to see it abolished, others, especially the younger generation, support a clear separation of church and politics.

The Rev. John Paul Walker, pastor of St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in New Haven, said of Trump’s promise, “No, I don’t think it’s a good idea, because the church is not in the business of endorsing specific candidates. ... We have to minister to all people of all backgrounds.”

Walker, who recently led the annual March for Life against abortion, said, “the church’s job is to articulate principles, especially moral principles, and then give [people] the tools to then analyze based on those principles.”

But the Rev. Todd Foster, pastor of Church on the Rock in New Haven, agreed with the president that religious organizations should not be prevented from endorsing candidates. The church’s teachings are based on biblical principles, he said, and, “We may have opinions of candidates based on those standards and [we] ought to say why we favor a candidate based on those standards we have.”

Foster said he recently preached on the fact that people are divided in their political loyalties, and said a minister might not endorse a candidate based on their political views but on other attributes. “We could talk about an issue of pride or humility,” he said. “I do believe we ought to be able to make a fair comparison. Put it all out there, name the names, name the issues.”

“I feel personally, even historically, that you can’t really separate politics from the voice of the prophet,” he said. “Pastors, ministers and prophets have always influenced the course of the nation.”

Steele said that, as an example, his church “stands with” immigrants and refugees. “The president [or] the government doesn’t regulate what comes from the pulpit,” he said.

Steele said he has not endorsed anyone because “I don’t speak against individuals, but I do speak against the belief systems and the political views of individuals.”

The Rev. Rochelle Stackhouse, pastor of New Haven’s Church of the Redeemer, said she doesn’t believe pastors should endorse candidates for a number of reasons: “First of all, because I think clearly the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion and the Johnson Amendment fleshes that out. Secondly, it does not prohibit free speech. I can preach about politics all I want. I simply can’t advocate the election of any specific person.”

Stackhouse added that such an endorsement would confuse people both inside and outside the church. Some people might “feel like they’ve lost their church and they can’t be here anymore and the free exchange of issues … gets lost.”

Rabbi Herbert Brockman of Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden said he doesn’t see a big difference between advocating for a policy, such as slowing climate change, and endorsing a candidate who supports that policy. “Do I want to get into politics? Not really,” he said. “It’s more important to stand up for values and principles.” But he added, “It seems to me almost a game that we play not to list a person’s name.”

Repeal does not appear to have widespread public support. Eight in 10 Americans said it was inappropriate for pastors to endorse a candidate in church in a poll released in September by Lifeway Research, a religious survey firm based in Nashville.

For many religious conservatives, whose overwhelming support helped propel Trump to the White House, a more pressing issue they hope he will address is protection for faith-based charities, schools and ministries that object to same-sex marriage and abortion.

The president made no mention at the prayer breakfast of other steps he may take, saying only that religious freedom is a “sacred right.”

LGBTQ groups have been anxious that the president could use his executive powers to curb legal advances they have made.

“We think it is entirely possible there could be an executive order that creates religious exemptions,” said James Esseks, LGBT project director for the American Civil Liberties Union. He added that the “narrative” that Trump won’t harm the LGBTQ community was “not correct.”

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that the president would leave intact a 2014 executive order that protects workers for federal contractors from anti-LGBTQ discrimination, saying in a statement that Trump “continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election.”

During a Monday news briefing, White House spokesman Sean Spicer offered no details on whether Trump could still issue an executive order affecting the LGBTQ community.

“There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now,” Spicer said.

Religious conservatives, who saw a series of defeats on same-sex marriage, abortion and other issues under former President Barack Obama, have been bolstered by Trump’s win. In a letter last year to Roman Catholics, Trump pledged, “I will defend your religious liberties and the right to fully and freely practice your religion, as individuals, business owners and academic institutions.”

Trump’s Supreme Court pick this week was also considered a positive sign for conservatives.

A favorite of conservatives, Judge Neil Gorsuch serves on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he sided with Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor when they mounted religious objections to the Obama administration’s requirement that employers provide health insurance that includes certain contraceptives, or abortifacients.